Chris’ Hot Dogs, Montgomery

Chris' Hot Dogs in Montgomery AL

Chris’ Hot Dogs on Dexter Avenue in Montgomery

Av and I had lunch at a Montgomery institution: Chris’ Hot Dogs. Everything was good…honestly, not great – but for what they food lacked, the atmosphere more than made up for.

When you walk in, you may think that you’ve walked into a newsstand – but walk on to the back, where there’s a counter with stools, and to the right of that is a walled-off dining area with two- and four-person booths.

From a Huntsville Times article:

Hot dogs were a nickel for more than 10 years after Chris’ opened. Katechis said curbside service was available during the early years, “back when there were fewer cars on the street,” until city officials said traffic was getting delayed. Food prices have not changed much. Neither has the combination of brown paneled walls, art deco ceiling and opaque glass. Katechis is considering an update, though.
“I’ve thought about re-doing this,” he said, motioning to a rear storage area. “People ask why I don’t just gut the place and totally redo it. But I can’t. I just can’t. There’s just something about it. People like it. We added the dining area before World War II, so there hasn’t been much change in here in 60 years.”

The hotdogs are special because of the ‘secret’ sauce they put on them. You can also spice them up with the Alaga hot sauce on each table (Alaga hot sauce is in its own category, because it sweetens regular hot sauce with cane syrup). Hotdogs are $1.70, special dogs are $2.20 (what makes them ‘special’ is that they use two doggies in the bun rather than one). A special hamburger is $2.20, and onion rings are $1.70. For $8, you can walk out with a quart of Chris’ famous chili sauce.

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